Sven Cattell, shown above, is the founder of a key event at DefCon 31, the AI Village. The Village attracted thousands of people eager to take part in its Hack The Future challenge. At the Village I rubbed shoulders with hackers from all over the world. We all wanted to be a part of this, to find and exploit various AI anomalies. We all wanted to try out the AI pentest ourselves, because hands-on learning is what true hackers are all about.
Thousands of hackers showed up to pentest AI, even though that meant waiting in line for an hour or more. Once seated, they only had 50 minutes in the timed contest. Still, they came and waited anyway, some many times, including, we’ve heard, the three winners. This event, and a series of AI Village seminars in a small room next to it, had been pushed by both DefCon and President Biden’s top science advisors. It was the first public contest designed to advance scientific knowledge of the vulnerabilities of generative AI.